HFA in the Social Child?

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I've been trying to find out more about how big the spectrum really is. My 5 year old has many characteristics of HFA, but socially he seems fine. He has lots of sensory issues, most likely has ADHD, whisper repeats his words/phrases, speaks in 3rd person often, can be overly emotional and angry. Socially he has friends and interacts easily with others. He does seem to talk a lot at times and very loudly. He has had some strange social behavior at the park lately where he gets very angry with other kids if they try to play with his toy. He often brings a toy with him wherever we go. He's a very smart, imaginative boy that loves to builds things and take things apart and put them back together. He's on a long wait list for an eval and I'm struggling with all of it. I'd love to hear what more mild forms of the social issues are in HFA.

Most kids don't have great social skills at age 5, so it can be difficult to spot deficits. If your son does have HFA, it will become more apparent the older he gets. Some of the behaviors you mentioned do sound like they could be autism-related, but as I said sometimes it's hard to tell at that age. My son is also high-functioning (some people don't like that term, but that's another story) and he wasn't diagnosed until age 8.

My son did not really start having noticeable social issues until he was about six. A lot of 5 year olds are more forgiving about social differences, or are still engaging in parallel play, or not having involved, two way conversations. I did notice earlier, but not others so much. I noticed that my son did not seem to understand the social rules of joining a group already in mid play. Like, he would ask a group playing "superheroes" if he could play with them, they would say yes, then he would say: "O.k., we're playing Pokemon." Then, when the kids would say: "No, we're playing superheroes," he would see it as a rejection. He also would think he was being "made fun of" when kids tagged him in a game of tag. I also noticed that he would mostly talk "at" kids, rather than engage in back and forth conversations. Then, as he got a little older, we began to notice that he could not tell when kids were being nice to him, or mean to him. He would misread the intentions, and, therefore, was easily manipulated, or left kids wondering why he was so upset. This all became much more apparent (to others as well) the summer before first grade.